Elevator.



W. F. LEONARD.

ELEVATOR.

(Application filed Jan. 3 1900.1

(No Mqdal.) 3 Shanta-Sheet I.

'No. 658,378. Patented Sept. 25, I900.

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No. 658,378. Patented Sept. 25, I900. W. F. LEONARD.

ELEVATOR.

(Application filed Jan. 3, 1900. (No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 2.

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No. 658,378. Patented Sept. 25, I900.

' W. F. LEONARD.

ELEVATOR.

(Application filed 3m. 3, 190041 (No Model.) 3 Sheets8heei 3.

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WILLIAM F. LEONARD, OF COLUMBUS, OHIO.

ELEVATOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters patent No. 658,378, dated. September 25, 1900.

Application filed January 3, 1900. Serial No. 213. \No model.)

To (tZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM F. LEONARD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Golumbus, in the county of Franklin and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Elevators; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates more particularly to devices for automatically opening and closing the doors at the landings to elevator-shafts; and one object of my invention is to do away with springs for operating the door. I have found from experience that springs are somewhat noisy, and it is well known that they are not uniform in their action.

A further object of my invention is to simplify and cheapen the apparatus employed for this purpose.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a view in elevation of the interior side of an elevator-shaft at one landing, the door being in its closed position. Fig. 2 is a viewin elevation looking toward the right edge or side of Fig. 1, some parts being omitted to avoid confusion. Fig. 3 is a top plan view of the head of the door-closing weight. Fig. 4lS a detail in perspective illustrating means for setting the rod for tripping the doorclosing weight. Fig. 5 is a View looking toward the exit side of an elevator-car equipped with devices adapted to operate the apparatus in the shaft. Fig. 6 is a detailin section of a motorcontroller and itsaccessories. Fig. 7 is a top plan view of the same, the car-floor being shown as broken out. Fig. Sis a detail in perspective of the device for lifting the door-closing weight. Fig. 9 is a detail in side elevation of the device employed to release the doorlatch. Fig. 10 is a view showing devices for lifting the latch. Fig. 11 is a view of the same devices taken at right angles to Fig. 10.

Like characters of reference designate corresponding parts in the several views.

In the views, 1 denotes the door, which is supported to slide horizontally, as usual.

2 is a weight at the end of a cord 2*, running over a pulley 2 and fastened to the door at or near its upper end. This weight tends to pull the door to open position. 3 is a weight connected with a cord 3, that runs over a pulley 3 and is fastened to the door at or near its upper end. After the door has been opened this weight when released, as hereim after set forth, tends to draw the door to closed position, from which it may be inferred, as is the fact, that the weight 3 preponderates the weight 2, the differential being sufficient to draw the door closed when both are acting. The upper end or head of this weight 3 has pivoted to it a lug 4, and attached to an arm 45" of this lug is a dog 5, a tooth on the lower end of which is adapted to engage a notch in the side of the head. A spring 6 pressing on a lateral pin 5* of the dog, tends to hold the dog in the notch when engaged therewith. The head of the Weight is also furnished with an eye 7, through which the cord 3 passes; but the cord has at its free end a stop 3 larger than the eye,so that when the weight 3 is to draw the door closed the weight will-be suspended upon the cord, and if the weight be lifted while the door is closed the weight with its eye will be moved up on the cord without liftingthe cord and making slack therein. The bar of the weight 3 is conveniently square in cross-section, so that it may be secured non-rotatably, but, of course,vertically movable in clips 8 to theframe of the elevator shaft or well. The lower end of the weight 3 has hinged to it a spring-loop 9, held at an incline to the weight by a pin 9 in the end of the weight. The function of this loop will be explained in a more appropriate place hereinafter.

10 is a cam fastened to the wall of the shaft above the head of the weight 3 so as to be in vertical line with the pin 5, and when the said weight is lifted to the cam the 5 impinges against the inclined side of the cam and the dog 5 is withdrawn from its notch in the head of the weight. Upon the descent of the weight, however,the dog is restored to its engagement with the notch by the contact of the arm 4 of the lug 4 with a spring-finger 11, fastened to the wall of the shaft a little below the cam 10.

Pivoted in the shaft near the weight 3 and below the door is a support 12,that has an end 12*,held by a stop l2 so as to project into the path of the loop 9. When the weight 3 is lifted, the loop 9 fetches the end of the support under the lower end of the weight and swings the support up until a pawl 13 near the support drops into a notch 12 on the support and holds the same under the weight.

Both the weight and the support are shown to beset a little away from the wall of the shaft and the pawl 13 to be thicker than the support, so that the inclined under side of the end of the pawl may be struck to be lifted from the notch in the support bythe end of a reciprocable and rockable shaft or rod 14:,supported horizontally on the wall of the shaft just below the landing. This rod 14 has upon it laterally-projecting pins 14. and 14 ,standing at about an angle of ninety degrees to each other. The rod 14 has a spring 14, that tends to hold the rod so that the pin let shallstand up vertically and also to yieldingly hold the end of the rod disengaged from the pawl 13. When the door is opened, the weight 2, or a projection 2 thereon, strikes the pin 14* and turns the shaft or rod 14 about a quarterrevolution, so that the pin 14 shall stand out horizontally, or in position to be engaged by a device hereinafter described, on the car to move the rod toward the pawl 13.

The door at the landing has a gravity latching-hook 1 with a prolonged end 1". Hinged to the inner side of the shaft in line with the end 1 of the latch is a lever 15, (see Fig. 9,) having fixed to its upper end a shoe 15 and to its lower end a sliding piece 15 with a foot 15. This lever may be oscillated to project the toe of the foot under the prolonged end 1 of the door-latch; but a spring 15*, attached to the lower arm of the lever and to a suitable point in the shaft, tends to hold said toe normally from under the latch.

16 designates a rod having stops, loops, or project-ions 16, said rod being suspended so as to hang in the shaft between the footed lever and the latch. This rod has at its upper endagovernor mechanism operated upon the motion of the car, substantially like that shown in the patent of Cassius M. Bartholomew, dated September 27, 1892, No. 483,277, so that when the car stops the dropping of the governor-balls lifts the said rod 16, and therefore if the toe of the foot 15 be under the end of the latch the stop 16 will lift the foot and latch, thus releasing the door, as hereinafter further described.

17 designates the car or carriage equipped to operate in conjunction with mechanism in the shaft, as hereinbefore set forth.

18 designates a hand-lever journaled under the floor and having a crescentshaped section 18, over which the rope 18 for controlling the motor is passed. Sliding in suitable hearings in the front of the car and below the floor thereof is a cross head or bar 19, having at its ends on the same side lateral projections or cams 19, for a purpose to appear hereinafter. This bar is connected with the A spring 18, attached to tor and carriage.

the opposite side of the bar 19 and to the car,

tends to draw said bar to hold the cords taut. It will be observed that if the motor-controlling lever be swung either to the right or to the left the bar 19 is drawn in the same direction. The middle position of the lever, as shown, will be the position of rest of the mo- The bar 19 is so placed that when the car is at a landing the bar will be in position to act on the pin 14 of the rod 14 (see. Fig. 1) to th row the said rod toward the pawl 13 when the motor-controlling lever is swung to start the car up or down the shaft.

The carriage is furnished with spring-supported projections 20 at its top and bottom that are arranged to engage the lug 4 on the head of the weight 3 and when the car is ascending lift said weight until the dog 5 is re leased by the cam 10 and the weight is caught on the end of the pivoted support 12. The reason for securing the projections 20 at both the top and bottom of the carriage is to insure the setting of the door-closing weight 3 for a stop both ascendingand descending. The carriage is also furnished with an elongated cam 1, that acts on the shoe 15 to throw the toe of the foot 15 under the end 1 of the doorlatch when the car is at a landing; but it will be borne in mind, as before set forth, that said foot is not lifted unless the car stops.

. The operation, which can be readily understood from what has already been said by those expert on the subject, is as follows: Let

it be supposed that the door-closing weight is down in the position indicated in Fig. 1 and that the carriage is ascending with a passenger desiring to get off at this floor, the projection 20 will catch the end of the lug 4 and lift the weight until the cam 10 liberates the dog 5. Just before this dog is released the lower end of the weight is very slightly above the end 12, onto which it drops and is supportedby virtue of the engagement of the pawl 13 with the notch in the support. this position of the weight 3 the cord 3 hangs free through the eye 7 in the head of the weight, and the weight 2 is then free to open the door as soon as its latch is lifted. To effect the stop at the landing, the motor-controlling lever 18 is swung to middle or stopping position. In the meantime the cam 1 has swung the toe of the shoe 15 under the end of the door-latch, and when the car stops the shoe is lifted automatically, as before described, and the door opened by the weight 2. At the conclusion of its descent the weight 2 turns the shaft 14, so that the finger 14 thereof stands out horizontally adjacent the bar 19. To continue the ascent of the car, the lever 18 is swung in the proper direction, when the bar 19 throws the rod 14 to disengage the pawl 13 from the support of the weight 3, which drops and closes the door, because it preponderatesthe weight 2. In descending the arm 4 strikes the spring-finger 11 and the lug 4: is reset. When the motor is started, the rod 16 is depressed, and

IIO

when the cam 1" has passed the cam 15 the spring 15 withdraws the toe of the foot 15 from under the lat-ch, which of course is then free to perform its function of latching the door when closed. The Weight 3 is now down its full limit, but on continued ascent of the car the projection 20 at the floor thereof engages the lug 4 and lifts the weight 3, again setting it for closing the door. It Will be observed that the lower projection 20 on going up sets the weights 3 for permitting the automatic opening and closing the door for stops going down. It will also be observed that unless the car is stopped at a landing the dooropening devices are not brought into action. It will be further observed that both the opening and closing of the door are effected automatically, that the opening of the door may be made contingent upon the stopping of the car, and that the olosin g thereof may be made contingent upon and coincident with the starting of the car.

In hydraulic elevators it sometimes happens that the car with the door open and in the temporary absence of the operator will start away from the landing. So toinsure the closing of the door in such circumstances the lateral protrusions or cams 19 on the bar 19 impinge upon the pin 14 and release the door-closing weight;

The foregoing description has been directed to the particular embodiment of my invention shown in the accompanying drawings; but it is obvious that the form and arrangement of many of the parts may be modified without departing from the scope of the invention.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In combination, an elevator-shaft, a car to move therein, a door to said shaft, a Weight to open the same and a preponderating weight to close the same, a latch to hold the door when closed, and means on the car to lift the door-closing weight into inoperative position until the door is opened and hold it there until released by the operative.

2. In combination, an elevator-shaft, and a car to move therein, a door to said shaft, a weight to open the same, and a preponderating weight to close the same, a latch to hold the door when closed, means on the car to lift said door-closing weight into inoperative position when the car approaches a landing, and means to similarly lift said weight when the car ascends from said landing after a stop and an opening and closing of the door.

3. In combination, an elevator-shaft, a car to move therein, a door to said shaft, a weight to open the same,and a preponderating weight to close the same, a latch to hold the door when closed, means on the car to lift said door-closin g weight into inoperative position, means to hold it in this position, and devices on the car operated by the motor-controller for releasing said weight.

4. In combination, an elevator-shaft, a car to move therein, a door to said shaft, a weight to open the same,and a preponderating weight to close the same, a latch to hold the door when closed, means on the car to lift said door-closing weight into inoperative position,

a support to hold it in this position, means in r ing weight into inoperative position, and

means to automatically release the door-closing latch when the car stops at a landing.

6. In combination, an elevator-shaft, a car therein, a door at a landing from said shaft, a weight to open the same, and a preponderating weight to close the same, a latch to hold the door closed, means on the car to lift the door-closin g weight into inoperative position, means for supporting the same in such position, means for automatically releasing the door-latch when the car stops at the landing whereupon the door is opened, and means operative by the motor-controller to release the support for the door-closing weight whereupon the door is closed.

7. In an elevator shaft door operating mechanism, a door-closing weight 3, a pivoted lug 4, a dog 5 to hold said lug in operative position, a cam 10 in the shaft to release said dog when the weight is lifted.

8. In an elevator shaft door operating mechanism, a door-closin g weight 3, a pivoted lug 4 with an arm 4* thereon, a dog 5 to hold said lug in operative position, acam 10in the shaft to release said dog when the weight is lifted, and a finger 11 in the shaft to strike the arm 4 and reset said lug into operative position when the weight descends.

9. In an elevator shaft door operating mechanism, the combination of a door and weight therefor, a weight-releasing device 14, pin 14 thereon, a car, a movable bar 19 on said car to engage said pin, means connecting the bar 19 with the motor-controller so that said bar shall be moved to operate the weight-releasing device when the motor-com troller is moved to send the car either up or down the shaft.

10. In combination, an elevator-shaft, a car therein, a door to said shaft, a latch to hold the same when closed, a foot 15 adapted to be projected toward said latch when the car is opposite the door, and means operated upon the cessation of motion of the car to operate said foot to release the latch.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM F. LEONARD.

Witnesses:

G. W. ALFRED, GEORGE M. FINOKEL. 

